HECTOR Dick faced defence claims in court that he had lied persistently and it was the "obvious conclusion" that he was responsible for the death of Arlene Fraser.

THE man Nat Fraser claims could have been behind his wife's alleged murder told a jury today that he did not kill the mother-of-two.

Hector Dick faced defence claims in court that he had lied persistently and it was the "obvious conclusion" that he was responsible for the death of Arlene Fraser.

Mr Dick, 56, has been giving evidence for a week at the trial of his former friend, 53-year-old Fraser, a fruit and vegetable wholesaler.

Fraser is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, where he is accused of acting with others to murder 33-year-old Mrs Fraser, who vanished from her home in New Elgin, Moray, on April 28 1998.

The businessman denies the charge and claims that, if his estranged wife was killed, Mr Dick could be to blame.

Mr Dick, a farmer from Mosstowie, Elgin, has told the court that Fraser admitted paying a hitman £15,000 to kill his wife. He said Fraser told him her body had been burned and her teeth "ground up".

After several days of questioning, Fraser's defence QC, John Scott, suggested Mr Dick knew "far more about Arlene Fraser's disappearance" than he was "willing to admit".

He said: "Nat Fraser did not kill Arlene Fraser, nor did he tell you that he did."

Mr Dick replied: "He surely did."

The lawyer went on: "The obvious conclusion, Mr Dick, from all of this, especially your persistent lies, is that you killed Arlene Fraser, isn't it?"

The witness responded: "Not correct."

Mr Dick was jailed in 2001 for attempting to pervert the course of justice by lying about a car thought to be relevant to the probe into Arlene's disappearance.

The court has also heard that in 2003, Mr Dick stood trial with two others for the murder.

However, several days into the case, he gave a lengthy statement to prosecutors, the charges against him were dropped and he went on to give evidence in the trial.

After four days of looking at Mr Dick's evidence in the current trial, Mr Scott put it to the witness: "You knew far more about Arlene Fraser's disappearance than you've been willing to admit."

Mr Dick replied: "No."

The QC said it was only 18 months on from the disappearance that Mr Dick started to "drop Nat Fraser into the picture" with the police.

Mr Scott suggested Mr Dick offered a "drip, drip, drip" of information about Fraser to see if police would leave him and his family alone.

"After 18 months you were in jail. You'd been charged for a lie about the car. You were desperate to get out, desperate to get charges dropped, desperate to pass the blame to someone else," said the lawyer.

Mr Dick said that was "not correct".

The jury of seven men and eight women has heard of a conversation Mr Dick said he had with Fraser two days before his wife vanished, in which Fraser was said to have had an "ill-will" towards his wife and talked of a hitman.

But Mr Scott said that if such a conversation had actually taken place on April 26 that year, Mr Dick would not have waited for five years to elapse before speaking of it.

"You were manoeuvring to try and improve your position for years," Mr Scott said.

The defence counsel said it was an "odd coincidence" that Arlene had been "spooked" by Mr Dick's presence outside her house a week before she vanished, a suggestion rejected by Mr Dick.

The court also heard that Mr Dick had experience of disposing of animal carcasses and had buried the remains of cars at his farm.